In aggregate, world
military expenditures rose to $1.7 trillion in 2015, an increase of about 1%
from last year. According to SIPRI, this was the first increase in
global military spending since 2011. Unsurprisingly, the United States
earned the top spot by a ridiculous margin, spending a gargantuan $596
billion in 2015 (for which the military industrial complex - the
recipient of the funds - is eternally grateful). The US is followed by
China, and Saudi Arabia who spent
an estimated $215 billion and $87.2 billion respectively.
Here is how the top fifteen countries rank.

Bloomberg summarized two troubling developments in the following
charts, first with countries in Southeast Asia, presumably concerned
with China’s activity in
the South China Sea, and then with countries in Eastern Europe, on
fears of Russian aggression (even though it is NATO which most recently
announced it would be aggressively shifting its positioning in Eastern
Europe).
Here is the pace in which Southeast Asian countries are increasing their military spending.

And here is what’s happening in Eastern Europe. Ironically, Russia,
where slumping oil receipts have weighed on the economy, fell to fourth
position in the global rankings, with Saudi Arabia taking third spot. The Mideast country, also hurt by the lower price of crude, would have cut spending too had it not been for the $5.3 billion cost of its military campaign in Yemen.

India, courted this year by contractors including BAE Systems Plc,
Boeing Co.,Lockheed Martin Corp. and Saab AB, had the sixth-biggest
defense budget in 2015, after the U.K. in fifth. IHS Jane’s analysts
forecast it will advance to fourth in 2017, with a 13.1 percent boost to
spending for a total $50.7 billion.